Competent educators know that the most important factor in student success is having competent, dedicated, hardworking teachers in each classroom. Such teachers do not want to be absent from their students, even for a single day. In this case, apparently Ms. Kahn did not attempt to organize her trip in advance of the school year, giving her principal the chance to determine if it would be possible to obtain a long-term substitute teacher. Even so, few if any principals would be disposed to allow any teacher to leave school for three successive weeks for what amounts to personal business, no matter how deeply felt the teacher’s need might be, religious or otherwise. This is particularly true in December, during which the final few weeks of the first semester fall. What many fail to realize is that a teacher’s summer vacation, which by the way grows shorter each year, is largely used by teachers to obtain state mandated re-certification credits (usually at their own expense), and to conduct the kind of personal business that is just not possible during the school year. In fact, most teachers would not make such a request, particularly on the spur of the moment, understanding it to be inherently unreasonable.

Teachers certainly do upon occasion have to leave the classroom for weeks at a time due to unexpected illness or family emergencies such as deaths or the unexpected needs of elderly parents, but such matters are understood and accepted and are commonly written into the polices of school districts, particularly those like the Berkeley district with a unionized work force. In this case, the union contract apparently did not allow such absences.

The courts, and the Justice Department, have traditionally extended substantial deference toward school authorities in such matters recognizing that interference would be far more likely to be harmful than helpful and that local control was of paramount importance. Of course, the Obama administration knows best, in this and in every other facet of our lives, so DOJ involvement in this matter likely represents only the nose of the camel under the tent.

The determining factor in this case will likely be encapsulated in one word: reasonable. In other words, was the Berkeley district unreasonable in failing to fully accommodate Kahn’s desire for a religious pilgrimage? By throwing the full weight and resources of the federal government behind Ms. Kahn, it is clear that the DOJ under Mr. Holder and Mr. Obama believe that the district was unreasonable, at least so far as the desires of Muslims are concerned. It is not unreasonable to believe that a Christian teacher suddenly struck with the idea of a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem would not be accorded the same federal support.

Should the courts rule in favor of Ms. Kahn (and by extension, the DOJ and Mr. Obama), it is hard to imagine which Muslim religious observance would not have to be accommodated. After all, if it is legally reasonable for Muslim teachers to be given three weeks off for religious reasons upon request, what lesser imposition on public time and money — and the uninterrupted learning environments of their students — could be deemed unreasonable? Foot washing stations? Segregation of male and female students and wearing of the hijab for female teachers and students? Students being able to disrupt class when they please, laying down prayer rugs, facing Mecca and loudly praying? Should any of this sound farfetched, keep in mind that these matters, and more, have already been discussed and/or litigated in schools and colleges across the nation.

But perhaps this is really nothing but a tempest in a teapot. Perhaps this is nothing more than Mr. Obama’s continuing “outreach” to the Muslim world. After all, NASA’s primary new mission is to help Muslims to feel good about centuries old scientific accomplishments. After all, what’s a little Sharia among friends?

Mike McDaniel is a former police officer, detective, and SWAT operator, and is now a high school English teacher. He blogs here.

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1.
Andy

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip…
So sharia is introduced.
The death of America by a thousand cuts.
The founder of CAIR (the Council of American-Islamic Relations), Omar Ahmad, summed it up best when he said,
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”

First, I can’t tell if her name is Khan (it’s spelled that way at the beginning of the article) or Kahn (later in the article). I’m guessing it’s the former; the latter sounds European, and vaguely Jewish. Sort of like finding that the latest Arab person in the news is named Abdullah Rosenberg.

Second, I wonder…what if her religious practices required her to be somewhere every Thursday, all day? Would she be allowed to collect her paycheck anyway, even assuming they docked her for not working when she wasn’t there? And why isn’t she planning her hajj once she retires? The retirement age is no doubt late 40′s or early 50′s, mid 50′s at worst. She should be able to do it then…

…. why isn’t she planning her harge once she retires in her 40′s or 50′s ….?

Because islam, as, courtesy of our treasonous and un-and-anti-American feral gummint’s immigration elitists, is foisted on our beloved fraternal republic and as — courtesy of other less free pseudo and/or post-Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilized nation-states’ own Socialist International serving elitists — is foisted on the rest of the once-free world, is about our nation’s and Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilization’s subjugation. In islam every female is someone’s property. Someone’s thing. And the satisfaction of her wants and needs are very far from the point here.

You and me — and the denial of yours and mine — and of our God-Given Rights are.

That aside: a Chicago-area school district? A union contract? Couldn’t happen to a nicer couple of organizations. Well, maybe it could — the lefties of Manhattan + the trial of KSM. Eric Holder seems to be determined about this. Will this be a push too far? Will he be turned back the way he was on the KSM trial? Will the American people put a final end to this DOJ madness?

“It is not unreasonable to believe that a Christian teacher suddenly struck with the idea of a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem would not be accorded the same federal support.”

Are you sure about this?

Take the case of Shirley Chaplin, a nurse in the UK. She was ordered to remove her crucifix while muslim nurses were allowed to wear hijabs and the Department of Health announced that female Muslim staff will be permitted to cover their arms on hospital wards to preserve their modesty.

Why was she treated diffrent?
The employment tribunal determined that wearing the cross raised health and safety concerns and was not a “mandatory requirement” of the Christian faith.
Wearing a hijab was, according to the employment tribunal, obviously a mandatory requirement and having long sleeves is not realy a health concern (for muslim nurses only!).
Muslims can have it both ways…
Muslims claim the hijab is CULTURAL when people criticise muslim societies for forcing women to wear a hijab.
Muslims claim the hijab is RELIGIOUS when muslims

The Muslim calendar is lunar. Because the lunar year is not linked to the seasons it drifts each solar year by 11 to 12 days, and comes back to the position it had in relation to the solar year approximately every 33 Islamic years.

The making the Hajj is required only once a lifetime so any Muslim with a perpetual Hijri/Gregorian calendar (look online) can work out in advance when Rammadan falls in a time period that does not disrupt the school year. In the United States, summer vacation lasts for almost 3 months. That’s an easy target to hit.

Obama’s NASA’s primary new mission is to help Muslims to feel good about other Peoples’ centuries old scientific accomplishments.

Islam has never been more than the enslaving, raping, sexually-mutilating and mass-murdering death cult it is today and that, unless it is universally recognized as and called what it is and is stopped dead in its tracks, will triumph over Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilization’s every enlightenment and every achievement and every advance and will plunge Mankind by any other name into a new and desperate Dark Age from which Mankind will likely never again emerge.

She could probably arrange for a team teacher to bridge the gap, or some other creative solution, if she wanted to. But Islam is the religion of perpetual outrage, and sharia by battering down the front cultural and legal door.

Fight against sharia by resisting such calls for accommodation. They will never end until we are enslaved.

The failure to prosecute the New Black Panthers, expanding Pigford I to Pigford (?)XX, suing Arizona over its “discriminatory” immigration law, not to mention suing Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the 4th time, KSM takes Manhattan & now defending the “right” of the poor Muslim teacher to go to Mecca…..when it comes to stirring up racial & ethnic tensions, Holder seems to have his own version of Helter Skelter! BTW, who WAS Charles Manson calling on that confiscated cell phone?

Here are Holder and the DOJ taking a position that the vast majority of Americans almost certainly would find absurd. You can’t turn on the TV these days without seeing other instances of Muslims arguing that our laws don’t apply to them.

We are not so far down the path that we can’t go back, but you can almost see that point in the distance if you squint. Those countries in Europe and Scandinavia that are being assimilated by immigrants espousing an alien culture are like the frog in the pan of water heating on the stove–they’re dying slowly, blissfully unaware of their plight.

The Principal and Superintendent of Schools are lucky she didn’t demand the AIR FARE to fulfill her religious “duty.” And, as someone already said, that she didn’t have to practice it weekly instead of once in her life. I would like to go to Bethlehem, Mr. Holder. Surely you could bring a suit and force the ACLU or President Obama to pay my way there. I am sick and tired of groups being given SPECIAL rights instead of EQUAL. If you know your religion requires you to travel to Mecca, do it before you take a job that requires you to be present here instead.

“Employees should not have to choose between their religious practice and their livelihood,” said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Right Division. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission is also involved in the case. This is the first such case ever brought by the DOJ.”

So if my religion says that I need to take a month off from work to pray, my employer not only has to allow me to leave, but also has to pay me for the right to pray? This will only encourage companies NOT to hire Muslims so as to avoid this whole problem. And with so many unemployed people out there looking for jobs, companies will have no problem ignoring applications from Muslims (or people with Muslim-sounding names) and hiring non-Muslims. Eric Holder is simply encouraging companies NOT to hire Muslims. Thanks a bunch, Eric!

So, is Mr. Perez going to speak up for health care workers who object to participating in, say, abortions? I can’t cite a source off the top of my head, but I seem to recall reading that this administration has little sympathy or patience for nurses, doctors, and other health care workers whose Christian faith dictates that they not participate in abortions. How about pharmacists who believe that dispensing “day-after pills” violates their Christian religious beliefs? Are they going to be forced to “choose between their religion and their livelihood?”

Be careful what you ask for, Mr. Perez. If this case is won for Ms. Khan and Christians don’t take it and run with it, then we are missing an opportunity. Force the DOJ to explain why there is a difference!

Your exactly right, that was my sediments as well while reading the article along with some of the comments made that if Holder along with there Bed Buddies CAIR are hoping to win on for the “Gipper” So to Speak then they should be careful what they wish for !!!

This is to hold true for anything Holder, Obama and anyone affiliated with either should be very careful of imposing certain commands that may arise from the Koran or those who live, breath by the Koran or the Muslim faith. Should they win their case, the Teachers Union’s across the Nation should be vary careful in that their futures do look bleak form the simple fact that as the old saying goes, what’s good for the Goose is good for the Gander and this just might be the one that Bite’s them all in the Ass. Careful what you wish for Mr. Holder & Associates !!!

While the law does state that employers must grant reasonable accommodations, the woman asked for three weeks. It doesn’t take three weeks to travel to Mecca. The idea that allowing an accommodation, a legal requirement, would be the camel’s nose under the tent is far fetched. We’ve seen plenty of camels already.

As a certified Islamaphobe I find this case to be somewhat ambiguous. The Hajj is tied to the Islamic calendar and not simple a trip to a holy place. So unlike a Jew or Christian returning to the Holy Land on a personal pilgrimage a Muslim can only fulfill this religious requirement during a specific time period.

Had she requested to take the entire three weeks as paid leave whether she had the leave balance to do so or not then I would say that the school district made the correct call. However, she offered to take in as leave without pay so I think the district could have accommodated her on this. I don’t think this has anything to do with enshrining sharia law into the constitution.

Her absence, whether one day or 15, requires additional expense for the school district and the taxpayer in the form of a substitute teacher. The fact that she would not be compensated is moot. As noted elsewhere, this is a test case, undoubtedly the first of many.

As the Hajj is tied to the Islamic calendar, it rotates through the year on our calendar. All this teacher would have to do is wait a few years when the Haff has rotated into the summer months– and make her pilgrimage then.

Said teacher was hired in 2007 at the ripe old age of 27.
After one year of employment she wanted 3 weeks of Hajj and two weeks of Christmas break on religious grounds!?!Her travel dates were Dec. 1 – 21st.

If it was sooo important to her – Why did she wait until she was hired?
Why didn’t she request hajj in 2007? Why didn’t she go in 2004, 05, 06?
Obviously, this is a ‘test’ case and a set-up. Tell her to go pitch her tent elsewhere.

Holder does what he’s told by President Narcissus. Black Panther voter intimidation — think of it as pay back. Same with shelling out $4 billion to black farmers, the vast majority of which were not farmers. Why not Sharia law? Who is to say common law is better jurisprudence? What prevents theft better, a slap on the wrist or the hand chopped off? Now that we have enshrined multiculturalism as a way of life, who is to say America is any better than Kenya?

Interesting point. If “one shouldn’t have to choose between one’s religious practices and one’s livelihood” then I would think one could refuse to perform an abortion on the same grounds.
In light of the ACLU’s recent action regarding Catholic hospitals and their refusal to allow abortions on moral grounds, I would think the DOJ would want to jump right in and help Catholic Christians so that they also “shouldn’t have to choose between one’s religious practices and one’s livelihood.”
We’ll see if the DOJ is interested in helping Christians.

I think Mr. Issa will or is already planning to bring Holder and most of Obama’s Administration in for Questioning for there past aggression in and out of the Court Room and I believe he plans to keep them busy with answering question submitted by Issa so for the next 2-4 years not too many within the Obama Administration are going to have time to sneeze the wrong way. Holder IMO is the true Islamist and not afraid to show his true colors to anyone as we have witnessed thus far !!!

#17: How do you get certified as an Islamaphobe? I would like that too!

Furthermore, if you work with a Muslim, and they get time during the work day to pray 5 times, how is this fair? Non-Muslims don’t get that many breaks. And woe be unto him who expects a Muslim to work on a Friday. GTFO on that one.

What else would you expect from Holder, who was personally involved in obtaining the pardons for the Puerto Rican terrorists and engineering the pardon of Marc Rich, who was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List; having been convicted, in absentia, for multiple felonies. Of course, Holder committed that particular engineering job while he was working for President Clinton and only after Marc Rich’s wife “contributed” a few million to Clinton’s campaign funds and his “presidential library fund”. Eric Holder, thy middle name is “HYPOCRITE”!

No, Holder, hate crimes laws are of no importance to us!! The truth is we don’t need or want ‘thought police’ infringing on our 1st Amendment rights. What we DO WANT is enforcement of criminal laws dating back to the Bible. We don’t condone the pipe-bombing of the mosque in Jacksonville. But, if my memory is correct, was anyone prosecuted for arson at Sarah Palin’s Wasilla church last year? And if NBPP were instead the KKK or just southern rednecks, wouldn’t they be in jail now?? And what about the corruption at ACORN?? Were any of them prosecuted for voter fraud?? And what about the briberies involving the Sestak/Romanoff campaigns? If this involved a GOP White House, the democraps would want to throw the book at them!! As for equal justice for all, or ‘partiality’, we can see Holder is full of c**p!! IMO the 2012 election can’t come soon enough. Let’s hope and pray that 1/20/2013 will be the end of an error!!!!

BREAKING: DOJ Undermines Pentagon, Allows Wisconsin To Ignore Military Voting Protections
This is a disgrace, plain and simple. Military voters, their families, and veterans organizations should be outraged at the Holder DOJ.
September 10, 2010 – by J. Christian Adams
It is 2008 all over again. Today the Department of Justice effectively rewrote the 2009 MOVE Act designed to protect military voters. In a settlement reached with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the Holder Justice Department allowed Wisconsin to mail ballots to overseas military voters only 32 days before the election, instead of the statutorily mandated 45 days.
Once again, it is no accident this embarrassing settlement is being released on a Friday, so fewer might notice.
The Pentagon had denied Wisconsin’s application for a waiver from the 45-day requirement: “The states granted waivers presented thorough and comprehensive plans to protect the voting opportunities for military and overseas voters,” Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said in a statement. Wisconsin’s waiver application didn’t even come close to compliance with the MOVE Act. They wanted to send ballots only 29 days before the election. The folks at the Pentagon rightfully denied the waiver request.
The victory for military voters was short-lived.
Instead of aggressively suing Wisconsin immediately after the waiver denial, the DOJ engaged in secret negotiations. An immediate lawsuit would have strengthened the negotiating position of the DOJ as well as preserved various equitable legal arguments, including the argument DOJ waited too long to commence litigation. Instead of doing the right thing, the DOJ did the easy thing and reached a settlement with Wisconsin that undermined the Pentagon’s denial of Wisconsin’s waiver request.
The tough negotiating stance of the Holder DOJ extracted a whopping additional three days out of Wisconsin. Ballots will mail 32 days before the election instead of 29. A consent decree filed Friday will reflect this quisling agreement.
This is a disgrace, plain and simple. Military voters, their families and veterans organizations should be outraged at the Holder DOJ.
It is true that time was added to allow ballots to roll in after the election, but time after the election is different in quality than time before. The MOVE Act was explicitly designed to add time before an election to ensure the solider would get a ballot in time to benefit from the express delivery requirement under the MOVE Act. This guarantees that ballots placed in military mail at least 7 days before an election will be returned in time to be counted. By sending ballots only 32 days before the election, many overseas soldiers will be denied this important guarantee. Congress specifically rejected post-election add-on time as a solution. Compressing the pre-election time ignores both of these important statutory purposes.
The limp DOJ settlement demonstrates a core fear inside Justice of litigating military voting cases. Even when the DOJ actually acts to protect military voters, the investigative methods resemble the Keystone Cops.
After the administration changes, an increasing possibility in 2013, it will be essential to clean house and install litigators who don’t flinch under fire, both in the courtroom and also on the battlefield. It’s time to put someone in charge of protecting military voters who cares about military voters, preferably with military experience.
Senator John Cornyn has put the heat on Justice, and blocked the nomination of James Cole to be Deputy Attorney General. Justice was desperate to have Cole confirmed weeks ago, and the military voting mess has aggravated top DOJ leadership. Americans rightfully outraged by the DOJ concession should send notes of support to Senator Cornyn for his efforts to protect military voters. The shameful Wisconsin settlement will likely strengthen Cornyn’s resolve on the Cole hold.
Could Wisconsin have done something differently? Lots.
Wisconsin could have done what Florida, Georgia or Vermont did, and fix the problem in the nearly twelve months since the MOVE Act was passed. It’s a question of priorities. Wisconsin could have just gotten the job done like other waiver-requesting states did when their waivers were rejected. The primaries in Wisconsin are on September 14, but the DOJ settlement won’t require ballots to be printed and mailed until October 2.
This is what happens when government bureaucrats negotiate with other government bureaucrats. They are completely oblivious to the private sector solutions to the problem, such as printing technology, and instead allow a tedious 18 days to go by before ballots are mailed.
This settlement shows a slavish devotion to plodding process, to doing things without any sense of urgency. It contrasts starkly with the methods and mindset of our men and women serving in combat zones.
Could DOJ have done something differently? Absolutely. DOJ could have sued Wisconsin in June once it was clear the State would not comply with MOVE. If the DOJ took the timid approach and didn’t sue because it thought a waiver might be sought, they could have sued immediately upon the denial of the waiver application. They didn’t. Justice could have then filed a motion for a temporary injunction seeking an order to force Wisconsin to print ballots and mail them a few days after the conclusion of the September 14 primary. Similarly, Justice should have used the pending motion to leverage a better settlement.
But all that requires swift efficient work, speed, resolute decision making, and the courage to enter a courtroom — traits in short supply in military voting enforcement at the DOJ.
DOJ also could have had the courtesy to respond to the draft Pentagon waiver guidance that was sent in the spring. DOJ could have reviewed the draft and provided a written response. Because it failed to do so, no final waiver guidance was ever given to the states. This alone calls for consequences.
Simply put, the DOJ allowed Wisconsin to do less than the law allowed. Like Julie Fernandes rewriting the Motor Voter law, bureaucrats nullified important protections for military voters in the Wisconsin settlement.
Compare this timorous approach to what just happened to Cuyahoga County, Ohio. About 6,000 Americans who grew up in Puerto Rico live there. DOJ threatened to sue the county unless Spanish ballots were used across the whole county. The problem is that the need for Spanish ballots doesn’t exist across the whole county. And the law doesn’t even allow a county-wide remedy.
No matter. When it comes to Spanish ballots, the DOJ demanded a remedy that went beyond the law. When it comes to our military voters, the DOJ negotiated a remedy that was less than the law requires.
Expect more of the same regarding Hawaii and the District of Columbia, two more states grossly out of compliance with the MOVE Act.
It’s really just a question of priorities, of favored political constituencies. It’s a dangerous game of politicization to play considering the mood of the country. It is one more incident that grows the coming wave.

I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us.
Eric Holder

Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago. This is truly sad.
Eric Holder

The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom. That’s the reality. He will be killed by us, or he will be killed by his own people so he’s not captured by us. We know that.
Eric Holder

Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial.
Eric Holder

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.
Eric Holder

Ms Khan is engaging in classic political activism. The issue has little to do with her personal religious rights and almost everything to do with pushing the envelope for a fundamentalist Islamic agenda. It’s fairly common knowledge that going on Hajj can occur at anytime in an observant Muslim’s life. Ms Khan knows this. If she weren’t in this for political gain, she’d simply do what countless other American Muslims have done- wait until their professional or other obligations are over and then go. Say I want to visit the Holy Land some day. Granted no Christian denominations, and as far as I know, Judaism, requires it but if I felt a deep personal obligation to go, I would. Thing is, I’d probably have to wait until either the kids are old enough to fend for themselves while I’m away or my job and other obligations permit it. I’d probably go when I retire. There is no rational justification for the DOJ to inject itself into this. It reveals the Atty General as the petty political hack that he is.

The issue of bowing toward Mecca requires different directions depending where you are on the globe. I wonder about this aspect. At which locations does facing Mecca also involve facing the Vatican along that great circle route?

If it was up to me, Muslims wouldn’t be allowed to teach in public schools in the first place, and this wouldn’t be an issue.

I wouldn’t want my kids being taught by Nazis, Communists, people who practice human sacrifice as part of their religion, or Muslims.

I’d be happy to help send her on a hajj, as long as it’s a one-way trip to Mecca. And, she can take a DOJ that thinks it can obviate legal contracts by fiat, any time the mood hits them, with her on her permanent hajj.